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F-35 Fighter Will Now Cost $2,000,000,000,000

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U.S. Air Force Maj. Kristin "BEO" Wolfe, F-35A Lightning II Demonstration Team pilot and commander, flies during the 2021 Reno Air Races, Reno, Nev., Sept. 18, 2021. The 2021 Reno Air Races featured performances from the U.S. Air Force F-35A Demo Team and the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. (U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Kip Sumner)

What You Need to Know: The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, with a projected cost of $2 trillion, has been plagued by delays, cost overruns, and a problematic F135 engine.

-The aircraft’s mission-capable rate remains low, hindering testing and evaluation. However, pilots praise the F-35’s situational awareness and sensor fusion capabilities.

F-35 Fighter U.S. Air Force

The F-35 Lightning II Demo Team flown by Commander, Maj. Kristin “BEO” Wolfe, performs during the 2023 Gowen Thunder Open House and Airshow at Gowen Field in Boise, Idaho, August 27, 2023. The purpose of Gowen Thunder was to provide a safe and memorable community event that thanks Idaho’s citizens, employers, and community partners for their unwavering support; promote patriotism, service, and volunteerism; and ignite the imagination of the next generation. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Tech Sgt. Mercedee Wilds)

-Originally intended to replace 4th-generation fighters like the F-15 and F-16, the F-35 is now seen as a complementary asset, forming a powerful “one-two punch” with upgraded older aircraft.

-Despite its troubled development, the F-35’s advanced technology offers significant advantages, but its ultimate success remains to be seen.

F-35: The $2 Trillion Fighter Jet – Was It Worth It?

The F-35 is the most expensive weapon system in the history of the US Department of Defense (DoD), with a total program cost projected at over US $2 trillion. 

That breaks down to a procurement cost of US $422 billion and $1.5 billion in lifecycle sustainment expense.

These numbers are eye-watering, but just for comparison, one Gerald R. Ford-class supercarrier prices out at $150 billion.   

What prompts the criticisms of the F-35 program is often less about the design, technology, and production contribution to the program’s price tag and more about delays and other complications causing the numbers to increase.

This total program cost is the cause of many of the criticisms of the F-35

The attempts to meet all three different service requirements, retrofitting fixes into the aircraft while still in production, and trying to meet the stated initial performance targets – plus a long list of other deficiencies – have been the cause for these costly delays.

F-35

F-35

How The F-35 Became So Expensive

This has created an overall narrative that says, “if we were going to this program over again from the beginning, we would run it completely differently.” 

Other commentators within the services are a bit more direct and just simply say, “We will never buy an airplane this way ever again: purchase three highly differentiated variants of a single design to meet the requirements of the three customer bases.”

However, that “buy 1 – get 3” approach is not the source of all the problems to date.

F-35 Engine Challenges 

One of the issues that continue to plague the program is the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine. 

This powerplant was derived from the F-22’s F119 engine and produced for a single-engine installation.  

F-35. Image Credit: Lockheed Martin.

F-35. Image Credit: Lockheed Martin.

However, using only one of the two engines in this application for a smaller fighter aircraft has overtaxed the powerplant.  

Projections at this point are that these problems that impact maintenance could increase costs over the life of the program by another $38 billion.

A fix is being worked on for the engine, and a new replacement engine has also been proposed. 

Either option will add to the final bill for the entire program, another point that the F-35’s detractors fixate on.

Excess Publicity

In the final analysis, the problems with the F-35 program are accurate, and the cost increases are substantial. Still, its perceived woes are amplified due to government and private-sector entities’ high level of oversight.  

It is a degree of scrutiny that no other previous weapon system has been subjected to.

F-35 is not unique in this respect. Most other aircraft programs suffer delays, do not deliver as advertised, and capabilities that were called out in the original specifications are often not on board according to the projected timeline.

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F-35 Joint Strike Fighter on carrier operations.

The one aspect of the F-35 that seems anomalous with other previous-generation aircraft is an abysmal mission-capable rate. What is known from publicly available but heavily redacted reports is that these availability rates rarely rise about 62 percent and are usually less – sometimes closer to 50 percent.

This, in turn, hurts testing and evaluation activities. For example, one of the other documents on the issue reads: “Launching F-35 4-ship formations of a single variant proved to be a challenge in the IOT&E [Initial Operational Test and Evaluation] open-air trials, due to maintenance-related aircraft availability issues.”

F-35 Fighter: When it Works, Its Magic

Despite the many shortcomings and cost overruns, the aircraft gets rave reviews from its operators.  

The F-35, by their testimony, provides situational awareness and demonstrates sensor fusion far above any previous-generation fighter.  

One of the more common observations is that the aircraft alerts the pilot to threats, to the condition of the vehicle, etc., in a pre-emptive manner rather than the pilot having to search or query the onboard systems.

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Fourship of F-35s takeoff out of the sunset, F-35 ITF Edwards AFb, Ca., 26 January 2022

Operationally, others will tell you that the aircraft exhibits magical properties when everything works. Pilots have a level of confidence in their survivability that is a force multiplier all its own.

Perhaps the one forgotten chapter – one written early on – in the F-35 story is that one of the original main objectives of the program will probably never be achieved. The aircraft was supposed to replace all the 4th-generation platforms in service when the contract was awarded. 

Moreover, the manufacture of these other programs was to have been shut down as those aircraft would no longer be needed.

The reality is that production lines for fighters like the F-15 and F-16 that were to have been idled long ago are still alive and well. Countries that cannot afford the F-35 or are not being offered that technology releasability (Slovakia, Bulgaria, Bahrain, Morocco, Republic of China) are procuring the latest and most advanced F-16 model, the Viper Block 70/72, instead and that model will be in production for many more years.

F-35. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

F-35 fighter shot from KC-135 tanker.

F-35, as one US-based electronic warfare expert commented to 19FortyFive, does not replace but “instead complements the capabilities of existing fighters out there. A 4+-generation fighter in combination with a 5th- generation F-35 is a very effective ‘one-two punch.’ It is, therefore, a much better partner for the older model aircraft still in service instead [of] an out-and-out replacement for them.”

About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson 

Reuben F. Johnson is a survivor of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and is now an Expert on Foreign Military Affairs with the Fundacja im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego in Warsaw and has been a consultant to the Pentagon, several NATO governments and the Australian government in the fields of defence technology and weapon systems design.  Over the past 30 years he has resided in and reported from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China and Australia.

Written By

Reuben F. Johnson is a survivor of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and is now an Expert on Foreign Military Affairs with the Fundacja im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego in Warsaw and has been a consultant to the Pentagon, several NATO governments and the Australian government in the fields of defence technology and weapon systems design. Over the past 30 years he has resided at one time or another in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China and Australia.

8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. Joel Carlson

    January 13, 2025 at 10:03 pm

    Where did you get your number from???

  2. Jerry Terhaar

    January 14, 2025 at 2:02 am

    A Ford Class carrier does NOT COST $ 150 BILLION DOLLARS! IT PRICES OUT AT $15 BILLION! CHECK YOUR FACTS BEFORE YOU POST ERRONEOUS INFORMATION!

  3. LEW

    January 14, 2025 at 6:49 pm

    150 billion? Where’d you get that from?

  4. JDub

    January 15, 2025 at 12:19 am

    2 quadrillion? You are of by orders of magnitude with this headline.

  5. Mike

    January 15, 2025 at 3:35 am

    Nonsensical headline. Dubious and even wildly incorrect costing data. Rookie errors.

  6. Dotard47

    January 15, 2025 at 7:22 pm

    all these fun and games will come crashing down, as the dollar loses its status of the worlds reserve currency.

    Samasons hair are in Delilah’s hands 😂

  7. Dotard47

    January 15, 2025 at 7:23 pm

    article written by H1B …. 😂

  8. TB

    January 15, 2025 at 8:25 pm

    Stop the F-35 was NEVER intended to replace the F-15. If Obama didn’t cancel the F-22 program with less than 200 of a projected 750 they wouldn’t be buying new F-15’s

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